What are the genuine pros & cons of sharing mental health issues at work? I want the honest things being said behind closed doors, not the official party line.

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It depends who you talk to, but I highly suggest you keep it to yourself unless requesting accommodations.
90% what you say behind closed doors WILL be shared by the other party. I have seen a lot of peers lose on promotions or projects because their boss knew about some personal issues that made them think “hmm, this may be too much” or they chose someone else that hadn’t disclosed their mental health status.
Is this right? No. But we can’t pretend that we don’t live in a time where this will cause bias.

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I’m in HR and I would say if you are meeting the standards of your job do not mention. Sadly managers are not trained to deal with these situations and can say/do the wrong thing that could be interpreted as “discrimination” based on a protected class. But if you are struggling performance wise or to meet your expectations as a result of your “disability” / situation or need an accommodation to do your job you should raise to HR. These accommodations can include modified or reduced schedule, fmla entitlement, leave of absence, etc. This protects you should your performance have been impacted by your health condition. Should mention that you would need to provide certification of health condition under supervision of your medical provider to qualify for job protection or accommodation.

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I'd like to mention that as a contractor you have MUCH less protection. They can terminate contract and I think companies are much less afraid to do so for lawsuit and they don't have to pay severance too

Yeah I remember a boss I told I had anxiety they held that against me and tried to walk all over me and boss me around knowing I wouldn't speak up.

Eventually this same boss came by my desk as I was Googling up some stocks and he told me we are not paying you to surf the web. He said loud in front of others.

I was done all my work and needed training from someone else before I could do any more before and the guy was busy for an hour. So instead of giving me benefit of the doubt they just spied on my screen and put me on blast. Maybe related to anxiety thing I mentioned.

Then the boss even went to far as to remote into my pc will all my coworkers hovered around and they all spied on me .. again I was on top of things. So taking a break to surf web should've been my choice , I ask for more work too but that was over the top.
And to top it off no reference of course lol

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Yes agreed, bullying at its finest and the ultimate micro managing for someone who was getting work done and going above and beyond already lol ... 😆 that manager always talked about firing people too , I guess the power goes to some people's head or something

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I am very upfront about being medicated for XYZ. The reason being I have seen people penalized for perceived poor performance due to their mental health with poor reviews and even being put on performance improvement plans. It’s also easier if, say, your medication adjustment backfires and you can just send an email to your manager saying “hey, know how I take meds? Yeah, doctor adjusted dose and I had a bad reaction - might need a couple of days to recover”. FWIW I know a couple of people who are medicated for things like anxiety and depression and if anyone talks about it it must happen at the director/partner level because no one else does.

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My boss is a rabid advocate for mental health. I’m currently in a crisis and will absolutely feel comfortable telling him why I need the time off. I’ve said in the past that I have bipolar when it comes up in conversation, but I don’t typically talk about it unless it comes up organically.

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I think it depends on the type of relationship you have with your manager. My manager and I share a lot with each other (without crossing boundaries), so I would be comfortable opening up if I was struggling. I guess I would ask you if you’ve seen your manager open up, lead by example, be open to vulnerabilities…if not, I’d keep it to yourself. Seek out help through EAP if you need to talk to someone.

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In hindsight, I wish I said something about my anxiety and severe depression. Chances are, the people who work closest with you can tell you’re going through something/ something’s off.
I was scared I would be treated differently and I already worked in a toxic work environment so the last thing I wanted was for my personal information to be the office gossip.
Long story short, they didn’t like me or want me on their team anymore because I seemed sad all the time. But they phrased it as “i appear overwhelmed and struggle at starting new projects”. (Even though they contradicted themselves saying I completed all projects on time and in an organization manner..)

I ended up getting fired. Had I logged with them that I was experiencing mental health issues, that would be blatant discrimination since depression is a disability and disability is a protected class.

I hope that info helps and best of luck with everything.

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Pros and Cons really depend on your team and the relationship you have with them.
I have a small team and I’ve worked with them for 5 years, so for me the pros of letting my leaders know my struggles allowed them to see when I may have been struggling and from a place of care and concern offer support.
If I did not share with them they would not be able to support me properly. I don’t have any cons but that’s my experience.

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Thank you everyone, these are really helpful answers. It's tricky because my work is project based so my 'manager' changes every couple months. I'd rather not have half the business aware of my mental health issues but wanted to understand what benefit it could have.
I'm coping at the moment so might leave it for now.

Hopefully one day it will be possible to speak up without negative consequences.

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Yeah now that you mention it it's possible the manager tells others , I think they are supposed to keep medical information private based on like privacy laws , but maybe their manager they are allowed to tell if they need advice on how to handle.

Can't trust everyone so I guess weight pros and cons

Then again sharing mental health issue could lead to more flexibility. Maybe more work from home days if the company is accommodating .companies can also point you to resources like counseling likely paid by them also.

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doubt it, if that has worked for you please post what companies offered more flexibility without HR backup.

pros: nothing, cons: they don't care and you will come off as an annoyance. if you have a disability you can get accomodations through HR. Other than that you are really just shooting yourself in the foot if you don't have some sort of legal backing/protection.

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